No. 7 St. Cloud State Volleyball Earns Split in Final Day at UP North Tournament

Saturday, September 14

SDC Gym • Houghton, Mich.

9 a.m. CT

St. Cloud State

4-2,0-0NSIC

Northern Michigan

4-3,0-0GLIAC

St. Cloud St.

Northern Mich.

Kenzie Foley 9-14-24 UP North Tournament

Kenzie Foley digs a ball against Northern Michigan on Sept. 14, 2024 at the UP North Tournament in Houghton, Mich.

Photo by: Calvin Larson - Michigan Tech Athletics

No. 7 St. Cloud State Volleyball Earns Split in Final Day at UP North Tournament

9/14/2024 6:16:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Huskies fall to Northern in Michigan in five sets, take down host No. 20 Michigan Tech in four to wrap up final nonconference tournament of 2024

HOUGHTON, Mich. – No. 7 St. Cloud State Volleyball (5-2, 0-0 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) split its final two matches at the UP North Tournament on Saturday at the SDC Gym in Houghton, Mich.

SCSU dropped its first match to Northern Michigan (4-3, 0-0 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference) in its first five-setter of the year (25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 13-15) before coming back to beat the host school, No. 20 Michigan Tech (4-3, 0-0 GLIAC) in four sets (25-18, 27-25, 21-25, 25-18).

MATCH ONE: ST. CLOUD STATE 2, NORTHERN MICHIGAN 3 (25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 13-15)

TOP HUSKIES

Fifth year outside hitter Kenzie Foley (Sergeant Bluff, Iowa) – career-high (tie) 32 kill/season-high 22 dig double-double and four block assists
Junior setter Emma Berran (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) – season-high 61 assists
Senior libero Keely Kurschner (Maplewood, Minn.) – season-high 21 digs and five assists
Sophomore middle blocker Hannah Bruskiewicz (Rogers, Minn.) – 13 kills and five block assists
Redshirt junior middle blocker Ella Thompson (Lakeville, Minn.) – 13 kills
Freshman outside hitter Carlie Willis (Grundy Center, Iowa) – career-high 10 kills
Junior defensive specialist Emily Kern (Belgrade, Minn.) – season-high 10 digs
Sophomore defensive specialist Annika Forbes (Cottage Grove, Minn.) – first start of the season and season-high eight digs

QUOTABLE – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann
"Northern Michigan is a very tough team and was fantastic against us defensively today. They really extended rallies, blocked a lot of balls and forced us to make some attacking errors as we tried to do a little too much to get around their block. I don't think we served overly aggressive, and they were in system a lot, putting more pressure on us defensively. They came up big and made plays when they needed to build a nice little cushion during the fifth set. We had a great push at the end, but it was too late."

NOTABLES

SCSU is now 11-19 all-time against Northern Michigan.
The Huskies winning streak ends at four matches.
10^th most kills in a game by a team (74).
Foley's 32 kills and 22 digs led both teams. She recorded her 65^th career double-double (six consecutive) and 90^th career match with 10+ kills, 25^th career match with 20+ kills and third career match with 30+ kills. Her 32 kills tied her career high and the school record for most kills in a single match.
Berran's 61 assists were a game high. It was her third career game with 60+ assists.
Kurschner's 21 digs were a new season high and the second most in the match. She has recorded 10+ digs in every match this season and 20+ digs 10 times in her career.
Bruskiewicz's 13 kills was tied for second on the team. She has posted 10+ kills in four matches this season and 5+ block assists three times this season.
Thompson's 13 kills tied for the second on the Huskies. It is her second straight match with 13+ kills and she has five matches with double-digit kills this season.
Willis sent down a career-high 10 kills in her second collegiate match.
Kern set a new season-high in digs and was one of three Huskies with double-digit digs.
Forbes made her first start of the season and third of her career while tallying a season-high eight digs.

MATCH TWO: ST. CLOUD STATE 3, MICHIGAN TECH 1 (25-18, 27-25, 21-25, 25-18)

TOP HUSKIES

Foley – 19 kill/14 dig double-double
Thompson – career-high 20 kills (.405 hitting)/21.5 points and one solo block
Berran – 46 assists, nine digs and three block assists
Kurschner – 15 digs, career-high seven aces and five assists
Bruskiewicz - 10 kills (.429 hitting) and three block assists
Redshirt junior Sam Zimmerman (Moorhead, Minn.) – season-high eight kills

QUOTABLE – St. Cloud State head coach Chad Braegelmann
"This was a nice bounce back win for us. Michigan Tech runs a very fast offense, and they had us on our heels at times. I loved our aggressive serving, especially Keely [Kurschner], who had a new career high in aces. Kenzie [Foley] and Ella [Thompson] were fantastic offensively. This was another good win for us over a team ranked in the top 20 in the country."

NOTABLES

SCSU is now 16-6 all-time against Michigan Tech.
The Huskies have beat four teams ranked in the AVCA Top 25 this season.
Foley recorded her 66^th career double-double (seventh consecutive) and 91^st career match with 10+ kills. She sent down the second most kills in the match and tallied the second most digs on SCSU.
Thompson set new career-highs in kills and points for the second day in a row with 20 and 21.5 respectively. She has posted 13+ kills in three straight matches and has posted double-digit kills in six matches this season. She led the match in kills and continued her efficient start to the season – she has hit over .400 in all but one match this season. She also tallied her first solo block of the season.
Berran's 46 assists were a game high. She has posted 9+ digs in five matches this season and has at least three block assists in two matches.
Kurschner set a new personal best with seven aces and her 15 digs tied for the most in the match. She has recorded 10+ digs in every match this season and 5+ assists in five matches.
Bruskiewicz's 10 kills were third on the team. She has posted 10+ kills in five matches this season and 3+ block assists four times this season. She has hit .429 or better four times this season.
Zimmerman set a new season best in kills (eight).

UP NEXT
The Huskies make their home and conference debut on Thursday, Sept. 19 against Minnesota State before traveling to play Minnesota Crookston on Saturday, Sept. 21. First serves are set for 6:30 p.m. CT and 2 p.m. CT respectively.
Links to each coverage option will be available on the SCSU Volleyball schedule page.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Volleyball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.